Modules WS 2020/2021

The doctoral consortium is an opportunity to sharpen and deepen both focus and methods of research, supervised by a group of external professors and/or advisors. It is designed to foster the presentational, critical and discursive skills in a group of international peers. By submitting their work-in-progress and interim results to an international doctoral consortium candidates also learn how to position their work in a competitive research environment.
Applications are refereed through an academic committee. Participants benefit from understanding others' experiences and results and receive valuable feedback from consortium chairs and other participants. A joint publication is to result from a consortium. A doctoral consortium will take the form of a multi-institution and often international seminar, workshop or summer school - an example can be found on www.dokonara.org, the consortium on sustainable spatial development our University participates in each year.
The research proposal must include a description of the dissertation as a research agenda and of the methodical approach. In the colloquium on the research proposal, doctoral students shall present their dissertation project and provide reasons for their chosen approach.

Details are listed in the Implementing Provisions concerning the Doctorate Regulations
This module is a requisite cross-faculty course in the preparation phase of the doctoral programs in Architecture and Planning as well Business Economics. It addresses fundamental aspects of research design and management with a focus on the specific disciplines, styles of inquiry, and learning cultures at the University of Liechtenstein.

Research design can be broadly conceived of as the high-level plan to conducting research projects in the service of answering research questions. A research design links the key parts of a research endeavour to form a coherent scheme, under consideration of ontological, epistemological, and methodological choices. Key elements include the problematization, research question, relevant theoretical lenses and conceptual frameworks, specific strategies of inquiry, and measures to ensure key criteria including validity and reliability.

Research management skills address the researcher's ability to manage projects, work autonomously, build an international research network, think analytically, and be creative, inquisitive, and original. Combining research design and management skills across two doctoral programs helps us bring together diverse cohorts and integrate scientifically rigorous training with elements of professional development training. Through our approach towards innovative doctoral education we contribute to embracing some key aspirations of the League of European Research Universities (LERU).

  • This course is designed to give first year PhD Students an aid for their academic endeavour. Just like in Research Design, the focus lies on methodological competences. At the same time, however, this course also aims at techniques rather than design strategies. The objective is to provide core compentences on how to craft a scientific text properly. Due to the concept of peer-monitoring applied in this course also social competencies will be trained. During the first year students will be working on their academic writing style, they will be made familiar with normative writing styles and ways to publish tackling various kinds of genres, and they will help and learn from each other through peer-monitoring activities. As a base sample texts will be used and the texts students will be producing will be worked on. The course is built on three pillars:Knowledge Management:
    Working with databases, literature management softwares, etc.Publishing:
    How to write and publish various genres: abstracts, research papers, articles, data commentaries, reviews, project proposals, formatting, etc.Peer-Mentoring:
    Giving and receiving feed-back, presenting and reviewing, considering peer-feedback, joint writing activities, etc.
In winter semester 2019/20 the topic "landscape" will be the focus of the module. Everything is landscape. The way we live and eat, which mobility behaviour we demonstrate, which priorities we set at the planning policy and which values we attach to buildings and open spaces, determines the quality of the landscape. It is a collective good that must be preserved, negotiated and further developed together.
Within this module, we will deal with the change of perspective that is taking place in the European context: to think the inward settlement development from the landscape. What theoretical approaches can this thinking refer to, what planning policy and planning practical consequences does it entail?